Kate Middleton is fascinated by fascinators, small headpieces adorned with jewels, tulle, flowers and most importantly, feathers. Her playful headdress has helped make the otherwise conservative dresser appear like a sharpshooting fashionista. When announcing her engagement, Middleton wore a saucer-like number by milliner Vivien Sheriff. To recent formal occasions, she has sported teeny fascinators with wild feathers, and even glamorous wide-brimmed versions. They were all poised delicately on the side of her head, right on top of her brow, like a perpetual wink.

Fascinators either latch on with combs or clips. They are intended to have a weightless, hovering look.

Of course, Middleton won’t be wearing a fascinator on the day of her wedding next Friday, April 29, even though veil fascinators are popular choices among brides these days. Rather, she will likely be wearing an heirloom tiara from the royal collection, which is a traditional royal wedding gift.

No doubt, Middleton’s stylish entourage will be sporting fancy and wild-looking headpieces for the occasion, including the ever-popular fascinators. In England, hats are as significant as dresses in such enchanted circles — and nowadays, for Top Shop shoppers, as well.

To celebrate the royal wedding in Canada, stores are even stocking up on the British fascinator. Mind you, they’re slightly tamer, less pricey versions. They also typically fit on as headbands, not as clips. But those decorative feathers are still propped up high to the sky.

"People are buying headbands just to watch the royal wedding on TV and to run through the streets. Headbands with feathers!" says an amazed Corine Serruya, a lively dame who sells hats all over the world from her Ophelie Hats factory on Jean Talon St. She has supplied many stores with the same high-flying numbers, which are to be sold as paraphernalia in celebration of the coming royal wedding. "So many boutiques in Toronto wanted to make sure they’ll have them for their customers. I couldn’t believe it."

Serruya says that she was raised in France and now lives in Montreal, which might explain her disbelief about all the monarchy madness. "People are really attracted to the royalty. It’s genuine love," she now understands.

Serruya’s factory boasts a metal hat-blocking machine, which allows her to stamp out hats in about seven minutes (the traditional technique requires pulling material over wooden blocks, which can take more than half an hour). Because of her stamper, Serruya’s retail costs are low, ranging from about $60 to $160 per hat. This formula, along with her constant need to take risks with her designs, has allowed the feisty businesswoman to distribute hats all over the world including to Harrods in London, Le Bon Marche in Paris, Takashimaya in Japan and Holt Renfrew in Montreal.

"They’re small, colourful and with sequins. And they have to look happy," she said. In Jamaica, things are quite the opposite. "Women are very proper," she said, opting for black hats for church or daytime wear. Women in France are not huge hat buyers, but when they do purchase them, they either go really small or "they go big," she says, motioning toward an oversized glamorama fan hat, in black. It was see-through, and utterly stunning. "They can’t really kiss anyone when they wear it," she laughs. She says Japanese women love hats, and generally opt for small, hip styles.

In Montreal and Canada, hat markets are notoriously inconsistent, if not non-existent — excluding toques, which are ideal for keeping warm. But she says, like the younger set in Britain, more and more twentysomethings are wearing hats with their outfits. But instead of clipping on outlandish fascinators, they typically cover up with fedoras, trapper hats and otherwise masculine styles.

"After the 1940s and 1950s, women just stopped wearing (hats)," she said. Previously, women wore hats to church, for a stroll, and just about everywhere. Then, times of change and revolution turned the once adored chapeau into a symbol of constraint, she said. Today, Serruya says that aside from religious dress, getting a 35- to 55-year-old to wear a hat is near impossible because of this negative connotation.

Lucie Gregoire is a Montreal milliner who crafts custom-made hats using the old, wooden-block technique. She has a strikingly similar observation about why hats fell out of favour. "It was about liberation," she explains in French. Gregoire points out that after hats were outmoded, hairdressers took over. "Now women don’t want to wear a hat on top of their $150 colouring job," she said. "Hats do flatten your hair; I can’t pretend they don’t," she said. Plus, they can present a basic mechanical constraint. Driving with a hat can be a challenge, for example.

For the royal wedding on April 29, Gregoire is making a custom hat for Sharon Johnston, the wife of David Johnston, governor-general of Canada. She says it will take three fittings to make the hat perfect for face and outfit (usually it’s only one hat fitting that Gregoire requires). Gregoire also once made a fedora for Johnny Depp to wear in the movie Secret Window, along with a matching hat for John Turturro.

Gregoire regularly teaches regular beginner workshops in her studio for groups of three to five students (French only). So while she knows firsthand how riveted people can be by hats, she also knows just how difficult it is to get a woman to wear one, let alone finding one that looks just right.

"In French, there’s an expression, ’I don’t have a head for hats,’ " she said. "But if I didn’t have the opportunity to try on so many, I’d say the same." She said stores often only carry the same styles and sizes, which aren’t right for everyone. Hats are typically a question of proportion — do you have a big face or a small face, a large or small head? These issues can determine how big the brim should be and how high the top of the hat should be, for example. "The same woman can look horrible with the brim pointed down, but if you lift it up, it changes everything," she said. This is why women should try on as many styles as possible before making sweeping conclusions about whether or not they look good in hats.

If a women still refuses, she’s probably just nervous about sticking out in her hat. "People believe they are being watched more than they are," she said.

And regardless of this jittery 35 to 55 age group, Gregoire again echoes Serruya in declaring that "hats are back" — especially among the younger generations. She says CEGEP-age students come to her studio and try on a mini-fedora backwards or totally cocked to the side (her ready-to-wear hats cost about $75, while her custom hats range from $200 to $400.). "Now (hats) are all about fashion," she said, instead of about being proper. But in choosing small hats, women still obviously care a great deal about their hair.

"Hats are becoming very important," says Avi Tenzer, design director for Aldo Group. "Before, we just had one or two (hats). But, now, accessories are booming." Tenzer explains that the economic downturn led to an increased interest in accessories, particularly among younger generations. Accessories generally cost less, and more importantly, they can also spruce up an otherwise bargain outfit. "You might buy skinny jeans and flip-flops, but add on tribal necklace or earrings, and you have a look," he said, noting that every week in the Aldo accessories division, sales are on average 20 per cent above expectations at stores in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

Hats especially give that "final touch" to one’s style, Tenzer said. And like the hat-wearing Depp, style nowadays is all about creating your own personal signature — for women and men.

"Young kids today mix rockabilly with punk with grunge" he said. Meanwhile, back in his day, everyone was "a victim," copying the star of the moment, whether it was Duran Duran or Boy George. Hats are an ideal way to update and mix traditions.

"I think they’re going to be even bigger," Tenzer said of hats. And by bigger, he likely means more in numbers. While Indiana Jones-style hats are a trend, and a woman might whip out a wide-brimmed sun hat on occasion, like Depp’s fedora and Middleton’s fascinator, it’s still the smaller numbers that work with our precious ’dos.

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